A Suit with Too Many Pockets

by Mario Guslandi

07/18/2006

Zebrowski, George. Black Pockets and other Dark Thoughts. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon, 2006. 275 p.

Well known as a SF writer, George Zebrowski also found the time and the inclination to write , over the years, a bunch of horror stories, now collected for the first time in the present volume. Horror fans, however, might make an objection or two to the use of the term "horror" in relation to some type of fiction included therein.

The stories are grouped in three different sections.

The first one , Personal Horrors, features seven tales which closely stick to the common concept of horror. Fine examples are "Jumper," graced by an original plot and superb dialogues , about a woman and her too realistic dreams, and  "The Wish in the Fear," a fine psychological study of a young man picking  up other people's fears and of the unattractive, overweight, lonesome girl living next door. "Hell Just Over the Hill" and "Alternate" are two variations on the theme of doppelganger, the former very effective and ingenuous, the latter rather conventional. "First Love, First Fear" describes how a young man discovers love in an alternate world, while "Takes You Back" depicts how a man trapped in a time vacuum has to suffer and struggle before being able to resume his previous life.

"Fire of Spring" is an excellent, horrific story concerning a family curse embodied in terrible, murderous, living "gargoyles."

The second section is called Political Horrors and represent the book's weak point. In spite of the author's brave attempt to explain, in his Afterword, where horror lies in these four stories, there is precious little horror indeed. Never mind, if only the tales would provide good fiction. Alas, this is not so. "I Walked with Fidel" and "General Jalruzeski at the Zoo" are just mediocre samples of "political" SF while the following pieces, even more SF-oriented, are tainted by a moralistic undercurrent either at personal level ("The Soft Terrible Music") or from a social point of view ( "My First World"). Told in a dry, detached manner the stories are too cerebral to elicit  from the reader any emotional response and too abstruse to trigger any intellectual interest.

The final group of stories, Metaphysical Fears, features pseudo-religious pieces suspended between realism and surrealism (" Interpose," "The Coming of Christ the Joker," "A Piano Full of Dead Spiders") and an historical pastiche ("Nappy").  Again, no horror whatsoever and, what is worse, a deep feeling of boredom.

Fortunately, the collection includes a brand new, outstanding novella ("Black Pockets") where a man acquires the peculiar power to create "pockets" able to swallow and destroy the bodies of his enemies. Horror at last, and more importantly, a great story told in a compelling, effective manner.

All in all, an extremely uneven collection, featuring both  some very good stuff and a load of dull material.